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Grav Cannon
The name "Gravity Cannon" is something of a misnomer. Instead of using Gravity as the primary weapon, as in the Graviton Cannon, the "Grav Cannon" uses a modified Gravitic Drive engine, coupled with a Linear Accellerator Cannon, such as a Gauss Cannon, To fire a kinetic warhead at a maximum velocity of .8c, or 80% of the speed of light. While the cannon is designed to work in concert with megafluxers, the power requirements are such that any ship not using a Gravitic Reactor system must have a dedicated reactor to power each cannon (In the case of Medium or larger Grav Cannons.) In addition, recharge time is limited to the charging capacity of the Megafluxers, and other systems. Thus, after a 3 shot burst (As is common in Cannon operation) the cannon must then charge for 3 minutes. Cool down is not a problem, as the elements utilize an advanced laser-optical slurry that will keep the elements at a temperature of approximately 0 degrees Kelvin. The advantage of this system is that the more power that is used, the colder the slurry will get, thus making Overheating practically impossible. Also, at these extremely low temperatures, the elements act as plasma superconductors, thus lowering the charging time even further. Operation The Cannon works by using propulsive elements much like those on a Gravitic Drive to simultaneously pull and push the shell, while using the Magnetic Linear acceleration cannons to maintain a stable, frictionless environment for the shell to travel down, although this can also be maintained by antigravity generators. The Gravitic elements consist of five long linear Gravitic Propulsive units made up of hundreds of elements each that initiate a tractive force while the shell is behind the individual elements, and a repulsive force while the shell is in front of the element, thus allowing more power to be used to accellerate the projectile, and also allowing for the projectile to be accelerated throughout the firing cycle, rather than merely using the magneto-attractive forces of electromagnets. Since the cannon does not use Electromagnets, there is no need for a ferro-magnetic shell, which means that just about any object can be fired with this cannon, from Zortium to small asteroids, depending upon the size of the cannon. Also, to avoid the recoil effect, inertial dampers are used to keep the forces from the cannon separate from the forces acting on a ship, although these can be disabled and used as emergency propulsion system if the main engines are down. Sizes The Cannon itself can be built in many different sizes, and, when coupled with a Megafluxer Power amplification system, can be made small enough to function as a primary weapon for small vessels, such as frigates and potentially even fighters, or large enough to be part of a planetary defense system. Cannons as large as 12km in diameter can be built to hurl asteroids with pinpoint accuracy at targets at approximately .8c. As of this moment, they are primarily built in 4 sizes. Light Grav Cannons fire a 600 Metric Tonne Zortium Slug at approximately .45c. These cannons are approximately 80 Meters in length, which allows them to be mounted in even the smallest frigates, and can be mounted in Turrets, although they are primarily mounted in spinal mounts. Medium Grav Cannons Fire a 1200 Metric Tonne Slug at approximately .5-.65c, and are approximately 200-250 meters in length, although they can be cut down to about 150 meters at the cost of efficiency. These are mounted on larger capital ships in Spinal Mount assemblies, although they can be mounted in turrets if necessary. Heavy Grav Cannons fire a 2000 metric Tonne Zortium Slug at approximately .75-.8c, and are mounted in spinal mounts in capital ships 1.5 KM or longer. These cannons are approximately 500-750 meters in length. Super Heavy Grav Cannons Fire a 4000 Metric tonne Zortium slug at approximately .8c. These cannons are at least 2-4 KM in length, and are mounted in ships that are 8+ kilometers long, and are commonplace in planetary defensive systems. Firing the Cannon The cannon uses 3 primary rounds. Kinetic rounds which are made entirely out of one material, and punch holes through targets, Shredder rounds, which are made up of many pieces of one material, and split up into "MIRVed" sections to impact the shields or ship, independantly, for more damage over a greater area, and SAP/AE explosive/fragmentation rounds which use advanced computers to calculate the exact moment at which the shell penetrates the hull, and then detonates an antimatter explosive, causing shell fragments to do increased internal damage to the ship. However, due to the advanced inertial dampening and computer systems required, this shell doesn't see much service, and is only used when attacking massive, high profile targets, such as Dyson Spheres, or incredibly large starships. Category:Mrrshan Empire Weapons